NBA Betting Tuesday: New York Knickerbockers at New Orleans Hornets — Preview and Predictions

The New Orleans Hornets have now lost three straight and will look to get back on track against a surprisingly very good New York Knicks team. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Knicks has been just how good they have been defensively: the Knicks are allowing only 90 points per game and holding opponents to 43 percent shooting.

“On the defensive end for us to be in sync the way we are right now, especially this early in the season, that’s a good thing. We want to keep building on that that,” said Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony.

Anthony has been having what could be an MVP season. He’s averaging 26.3 points per game and shooting 46 percent from the floor on the road. Anthony missed the last contest against New Orleans last year, which ended a six game win streak for the Knicks. They’ve still won the last three in New Orleans, by an average of over 10 points per game.

The Hornets are likely to have a lot of problems with the Knicks potent offense. They’ve given up 109 points per game in their last three games, and lost to the surging Bucks on Saturday night.

Anthony Davis has not been the reason for the struggles though. The No. 1 overall pick of the 2012 NBA draft score 28 and grabbed 11 rebounds in the loss to the Bucks, and sixth man Ryan Anderson scored 20. Anderson has scored 20 points per game and shot 54 percent from the floor in his last two games.

The 20 turnovers committed by the Hornets, though, sealed their fate.

“We’ll fix it,” said Davis. “We’ll go back to the drawing board…”

Davis hit 10 of 14 from the floor in that game, which was a nice sign for the Hornets after the Kentucky product shot just 6 of 21 from the floor in the previous two games.